Rob Riggle is a rarity in that he’s had two long and successful careers: as a Marine, which took him to hotspots like Liberia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, and also as a comedian who cut his teeth at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, appearing on the well-remembered improv team Respecto Montalban. But for all his years in the comedy game, including stints on Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, you probably know Riggle as the guy who played someone’s jerky older brother, obnoxious work rival, or out-of-control authority figure. And Rob’s perfectly happy with that.

His countless appearances include guest stints on Modern Family, New Girl, and Wilfred, as well as his UCB buddy Paul Scheer‘s Adult Swim show NTSF:SD:SUV. He most recently reprised his role as Coach Walker in 22 Jump Street, and he’ll be appearing with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in the highly-anticipated sequel Dumb and Dumber To.

I spoke to Rob last week about his many projects, his old TDS office-mate John Oliver, his memories from his UCB days, and more. I also tapped into his military side and got his views on the problems the Veterans Administration has been having getting care to returning vets.

It seems like nowadays I’m just seeing Rob Riggle everywhere. What has the last few years been like for your career because it seems like you just pop up in all these different projects, online, movies, TV, everywhere? Has it been kind of a crazy few years?Yeah, it has been. You know, I’m just trying to be a working actor, so I’ll take the work. It’s nice, too: the more work you get, you can be a little bit more selective, so that’s a nice little bonus. But at the end of the day, if I get an opportunity to do something and I think it’s funny or I could make it funny or I could add some value to it, then I’m in. Honestly, I just keep my nose to the grindstone and keep working. At the end of the day that’s usually one of those things that’s going to get you ahead.

What turns you on about a project to the point where you’re like “I’m going to sign on to this”?One, do I think I can bring something to the character they’re asking me to do? If I can, then that’s one of the driving forces. If I can identify with the character, if it’s in my wheelhouse. One of my favorite games to play comedically is arrogant ignorance. I love to play it. I think it’s funny. It’s always been funny to me. Somebody who’s large and in charge but totally wrong-headed. I think those guys are funny. Also, you don’t get to do that in real life, so every now and then it’s fun to do that. I would love to do something dramatic. I don’t know if anybody will ever give me the chance but I would love to try it. I’m trained in acting and spent many years working on it, so it’s just a matter of opportunity.

You could play a redeemable jerk. Maybe. I would love that.

Are you worried that you’re going to get typecast, or are you just enjoying those roles so much that it doesn’t matter?I say no to a lot of them because I don’t see a lot of value in them. Some of them are just straight up jerks with no humor to them, or something about it is not funny. I don’t know. I get characters all the time that are heavy on the misogyny or heavy on this or heavy on that. That doesn’t appeal to me but comedically sometimes I’ll see a character and I’ll be like “this guy could be fun to play.” President of the Navy on NTSF, I classify him more as crazy. He’s just out there. He’s narcissistic and those are all fun things to play. Gil Thorpe on Modern Family, he’s just a nemesis to Ty Burrell’s Phil Dunphy, who’s probably the nicest guy in the world.

What do you consider your most recent role where you really just dove right into it and just embraced it?Coach Walters from 21 Jump Street. He’s coming back briefly in 22 Jump Street. He was the bad guy in the film but he’s back with extraordinary circumstances. It was kind of a license to do whatever I wanted, because there were no limits.

Can you talk about your role in Dumb and Dumber To?Yeah. I can talk very generally about it but I actually play twins, so I have two roles. I play Travis and Captain Lippincott. That’s about all I can tell you.

What is it like being on the set 20 years later with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels? Were you a big fan of the original? Oh, absolutely. That was one of the biggest ones. It’s still up there in the comedy hall of fame. They brought the team back together. Jim and Jeff as Harry and Lloyd, and Bob and Peter Farrelly as writer and director. And they brought back a lot of the same producers. You got the feeling on set that it was a reunion for them of sorts because they all liked each other so much and everybody got along and the energy was great. If you’re a fan of the first one or you appreciate the first one, I really think you’re going to like this one.

I’ve been hearing rumors about this movie for almost 10 years now. Was there a sense of relief amongst everybody, like, we finally got to do this and we finally got to do this the right way? I think so. I think they have a mission. I got the feeling from everybody involved that they didn’t just want to do it for money or anything like that. If they did it, they were going to do it right and they were going to make a real commitment to diving in there and making it the best they absolutely could. You know, I’m optimistic and I love the guys so I hope they did it.

Everybody who comes out of the UCB seems to like doing projects together. It’s been more than just a few years since your days in the UCB improv group Respecto Montalban, so what is it that keeps drawing you folks together? We love each other. We grew up together in a sense. You know, we were all doing the starving artist thing in New York, grinding it out, doing open mics, doing 1:00 a.m. improv jams for nine drunks but we were up there doing it, spending every night at the UCB Theatre. Even if we didn’t get on stage we would do lights and sound or do tech for other people’s shows just to be around theater and be part of that community. It’s like your friends from your neighborhood. No matter where you go, no matter what you do you’re kind of always bonded to them. I feel blessed that the group I kind of came up with through UCB still are some of the best writers, actors, producers in the business. Owen Burke, Gary Sanchez, I think he just got two TV shows picked up. Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer are out there killing it on a daily basis creating shows and getting in movies. And yet, we all still, given the chance, we all go back to UCB Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday night at 9:30 and do a show called Facebook. Why? Because we love each other, we love the play and we love to do improv together and it’s a great opportunity for us to get together and do that. I think we’ll do that as long as we possibly can.

What do you do in the Facebook show? It’s just how old the show is; it used to be called MySpace. But it’s Facebook [now]. What we do is we get a member from the audience to come up and we bring their Facebook profile up onto the big screen and then we look at it. We look at their quotes, we look at their pictures. We interview them about their life and talk to them about their life and get some stories. We’re always looking for the specifics. It doesn’t have to be funny. It doesn’t have to be anything outlandish. We just need specifics. Then we improvise a bunch of scenes based on their life. We do two interviews per show so two scenes and then that’s the show.

Next page: Rob’s thoughts on the Veteran Affairs scandal and more.

Why has UCB been such a fertile source for all these comedy shows and SNL and The Daily Show for most of the last decade now?I think it’s because they’re doing it right. They teach you the basics and really give you a solid foundation in improv, having to perform, and understanding, “If you’re the crazy guy, I better play it more straight. I better ground it.” Listening and exchanging and things that take time to learn and develop.

You and John Oliver started on The Daily Show around the same time, right?Yeah. I think he started two months before I did or three months before I did.

What did you see when you first worked with him? Did you see that he might get his own show or that he could be the host of a similar show one day? Oh, I was lucky enough to share an office with him for three years. I got to know him very well. He’s the guy who got me doing standup. I used to drag him down to the UCB Theatre on Sunday nights. He didn’t know much about improv but he had the guts to go do it. He knew enough about comedy that he was fine. But then he put it back in my court and said “You come do standup with me,” which I didn’t know anything about. I went out and did it. So I have a great affinity for John. His talent is immense. Once he gets going, stand by, because there’s really not going to be much that’s going to stop him. I personally thought that if Jon Stewart were to ever step down that John Oliver would step right in. But I think John with his own show at HBO, I mean I don’t know if you’ve watched it lately but it’s killer. I think John Oliver is a major talent. He generates constant comedic thought and material but also he’s just one of the rare guys out there that’s just a good man. I think when you’re grounded in… call it whatever you want…goodness, right-headedness, whatever you want to call it, good things will happen for you. I love the guy.

Are you going to be back for the Fox NFL pregame next year? Yeah. Still doing Fox NFL, very glad to be back. It’s my third season and you know we’re going to have fun, as much fun as they’ll let me.

What’s weird was Jimmy Kimmel’s predictions and yours were almost more on the money than the experts’ were.Well, yeah. Last year for Riggle’s Picks I won the whole thing, so that seems shocking considering you had four Hall of Famers up there. But I love Terry. I love Howie, Strahan, Coach Johnson. I love all those guys. They’re really fun. I don’t give them too much of a hard time. Every now and then I’ll give them a hard time, but I try to keep it just in good humor, good fun. I don’t want to pick on anybody. It makes the day nicer.

Are you still in the Marine Reserves? I retired last year. I retired 23 years, nine years active, 14 in the reserves. All 14, I was doing comedy during the nights and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.

When you hear about this VA situation, knowing that you know people who might be going through some of this, what do you think of?Well, I’m sad and I’m disappointed. But at the same time, I’m not interested in finger pointing, because you can go back a long time and say it was bad here, it was bad here, it was bad here. This isn’t new information. What should be new is how we deal with it. What we should do is get in there. I just want to solve the problem.

How are your military friends feeling about Jon Stewart’s coverage of the story? He seems to be the only one who’s constantly pounding the drum about it in the media.Veterans appreciate it. They appreciate anybody who’s going to pick up the torch, the mantle. Anybody who’s going to get out there and beat the drum like you said. Paul Reickhoff for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association, he’s out there every day working tirelessly on behalf of veterans. There’s a lot of groups out there doing that. I hope the story doesn’t just fade away into the mist. I hope somebody keeps a spotlight on it until it is fixed because it’s something that needs to be addressed. We can’t ask the men and women of this country to go do things for us and then when they get home forget about them. It’s not part of the deal.

You’re promoting the Craftsman MAKEcation Event. What is a “makecation”?Actually, it grabbed my attention because it’s basically like a man skills camp, if you will. My generation and younger, our man skills have eroded. My dad and my granddad, they could fix an engine with a sock. You know, I have no idea what I’m doing most times. But this is a place where you spend four days over Labor Day weekend out at Lake Arrowhead in California. They’re bringing in experts in every field, woodworking, grilling, how to make your own whiskey. You name the man skill and there’s going to be somebody out there teaching you how to do it. So it’s a good place to learn from experts, pick up some tricks of the trade, how to up your man skills, if you will. To me, the guy who doesn’t have enough man skills or feels a little lacking in that department, this is a great opportunity to go pick up those skills. I’m going to be out there having fun and learning.

How does someone who was in the Marines lack in man skills? Well, there’s different types of man skills. I mean I could set up a defensive perimeter in the company and platoon level, I can run patrols, you want to talk tactics and weaponry, no problem. I can even start a fire by myself. But there are certain other things. I’ve never changed my oil. I’ve never made anything out of wood. I wouldn’t know how to do any kind of carpentry. I barely know how to cook chicken on the grill. So there’s all kinds of different skills. If you go on to that website, you can enter to win tickets and those tickets are transferable, so if you won, you could give it to your father, you could give it to your husband, you could give it to your brother, you could give it to anybody. You can also go there and buy a ticket and just come out for the weekend if you think it’s going to be something special.

What are you most looking forward to learning that weekend? I want to learn home repair. I can’t tell you how many times my wife points and says, “Could you fix that?” I stare at it like a deer in the headlights. So some home repair things would be great.

What else do you have in the works besides the movies that are coming out? I do a big charity event in Kansas City that’s going to take up some time. I’m getting geared up for that. That’s my hometown. I do it with Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Eric Stonestreet and Dave Koechner. We’re all Kansas City guys, so we’re hosting a big charity event for Children’s Mercy Hospital back there on June 20 and 21 over the weekend. It’s BigSlickKC.org.

What is it about celebrities from Kansas City, like the folks you mentioned above, that makes them so grounded?I’m biased towards my part of the country, like everybody is towards their part of the country. This country is full of great people, don’t get me wrong. But I think there are great people in Kansas City. I think they’re just good people. I think they have a great work ethic in Kansas and Missouri and I think they come from a place of gratitude and humility, or at least they try to. I think that’s why we always want to come home and support the things that matter.